Due to the Gulf War, many animals were killed or injured. Oil was released into the Persian Gulf killing over 10,000 marine birds and threatening sea turtles and other marine mammals. Toxic waste from oil fires also killed migrating birds. This waste may cause respiratory, immune system, and blood diseases in birds that can eventually affect large animals and maybe even humans. Petrochemical lakes made by oil pouring from extinguished Kuwaiti wells are destroying land and threatening marine animals by draining into the sea. Horse, camels, and livestock have also been injured or killed by things such as shells, mines, and bombs. Large military vehicles like tanks and trucks destroy the desert causing extremely dangerous sand storms. Finally, at Kuwait National Park, nearly 400 animals were killed by Iraqi soldiers or died suffering from starvation or injuries.

animals affected by war
Land mines are threatening people and animals. In 1997, Reuters reporter Roger Atwood wrote that about 20,000 land mines were scattered across the Falkland/Malvinas Islands.  Roughly twenty Asian elephants are killed every year in Sri Lanka due to land mines, according to zoologist Charles Santiapillai. These mines have definitely harmed animals, even endangered or threatened ones. In Mozambique, over 100 elephants were killed. In Gonarexhou National Park, elephants as well as buffaloes had to be killed because of being injured by land mines.  As a result of mines during Rwanda's civil war, Mkono, a critically endangered mountain gorilla, was killed. The land mines also damage farmland, forcing farmers and their families to depend on hunting for their main source of food. Mines like this are definitely causing a lot of mayhem and destruction and disrupting the circle of wildlife.

ndeze - the miracle baby
Ndeze is a tiny mountain gorilla that is one of the world's last 700 mountain gorillas. The baby was born on February 17th, in Virunga National Park in eastern Congo. Newport tells the Associated Press that it is a miracle how the gorillas survived a 10-year civil war even though the natives were killing and eating them all that time.